Space Taxi--Aliens on Earth Read online

  “Yeah, yeah,” a lizard-like alien says with a dismissive wave. He has a few more legs than I think a lizard is normally allotted. “I’ve got my kid’s birthday party. He’s turning six hundred and twenty-one, and if I miss it, I’ll never forgive myself. You can’t get those early days back.”

  Others begin shouting out all the reasons they have to leave Earth, and Pockets whistles again and holds up his paw. “I understand having to wait is hard for everyone. But it’s better than being stuck in space and having the taxi you were riding in suddenly stall out and drift aimlessly until it bangs into an asteroid. Right?”

  The aliens grunt and shuffle their feet, which I take as a sign of their agreement.

  Pockets continues. “Judging from the scene before me, we clearly cannot keep all of you together in one place. Each driver will be taking home whatever alien was in his or her taxi at the time of the solar flare. Home Base will alert you when the airfield has reopened.”

  At the news of unexpected houseguests, it’s the drivers’ turn to complain. Even Dad starts to protest. After all, we’ve got Penny to consider. She can’t know about aliens until she’s old enough to keep secrets better.

  Pockets holds up his paw again. “Every driver will be paid double his or her salary to help cover the cost of feeding and housing your guests.”

  That quiets them down.

  “Because of the damage to the bus, however, the bus company refuses to bring you to your temporary homes around the city. Normally it would be up to the ISF to decide how to get you there without attracting attention, but I have lost my connection with the chief.”

  “Also known as his father,” I whisper to Toe.

  Pockets motions with his paw for Dad to toss him the sandwich, so he does. “I’m open to suggestions,” he tells the room. “It’s not like we can just march you all down the center of Main Street in bright sunlight!”

  “We can just wait till dark to sneak ’em out,” one of the drivers suggests.

  Pockets shakes his head. “Can’t wait that long. Barney’s is meant to be a short-term waiting area, and we are well over our maximum occupancy. The food supply is dwindling, and we’re way too exposed in the middle of the city like this.”

  “Can you use the Atomic Assembler on them?” I ask. “You could make all the aliens look like humans.” After being turned into an alien on Tri-Dark last month, I still sometimes feel like my arms are extra long!

  Pockets bites into his sandwich and shakes his head. “None of my high-tech gadgets will work.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot.” I think about the problem for a minute, and about what Toe told me about blending in. Then it hits me… maybe there’s a way aliens CAN march down the middle of Main Street in bright sunlight after all!

  Chapter Three:

  Aliens on Parade

  “A parade?” Pockets asks. He reaches for his sandwich and then frowns when he sees only crumbs are left. “How could we hold a parade? Everyone would see us.”

  I shake my head. “Not a regular parade, a costume parade. Or, at least that’s what people will think they’re seeing. We can put up posters around the area advertising a costume parade and a prize for the craziest outfit. If regular people join in, that will be even better.”

  “I think it can work!” Dad says. “The drivers would march alongside their aliens, and then each group can veer off when they reach their homes.”

  “Let’s do it!” Pockets declares.

  Then things happen fast!

  First, Pockets announces the plan to the room, giving me credit for coming up with it, which makes me feel very grown-up. Since all the cell phone signals are knocked out, the drivers line up to use Barney’s landline phone to ask their relatives to bring them old Halloween costumes. Toe whips out some crayons and he and some of the more artistic aliens make posters on the back of Barney’s paper menus. Barney’s staff hurries outside to tape them up on telephone poles along the parade route.

  I’m a bit jealous they get to go outside on such a nice Saturday afternoon. I may not have mentioned the smell in the hot, overpacked restaurant, but ohh, the smell. It’s a cross between festering garbage and wet earwax. It’s totally not the aliens’ faults that their bodies react with our atmosphere this way. Even Toe’s natural chocolate chip cookie odor can’t make a dent in the stench.

  I want to wear my baseball uniform as my costume, but since Mom is out at the park with Penny, we can’t reach her. Pockets suggests Dad and I look in Barney’s back room to see what we can put together, but the aliens have eaten or taken everything in sight, even the coffee beans and sugar packets. They left exactly one paper hat and one bag of flour (which we found toppled over and hidden behind a cabinet). This explains why Dad is now dressed as a chef and I’m a ghost—a ghost who’s going to be picking flour out of his hair and ears for weeks!

  Within an hour, we’re lining up outside Barney’s to march down the middle of the street. Pockets organizes everyone so that the people who live closest are in the front of the parade and can just leave the line when their houses come up. That way it’s nice and orderly. I would never have thought of that, but that’s why he’s the boss!

  Small groups and families begin joining us, dressed as firefighters and witches and baseball players and ducks. It’s awesome! Even more people line up on the sidewalks to watch, never guessing that they’re looking right at aliens from planets across the entire universe. I feel bad that we couldn’t reach Mom. Penny would have loved this.

  Barney himself leads the parade. Someone gave him a pink wig to cover his bald head. The bagpipe he’s playing must be his, though; I don’t think many people have one lying around! Someone brought candy and is now throwing it out to the crowd as the parade passes by.

  We’ve gotten about a block down the street when I hear a voice shout, “Archie!”

  I scan the crowd to see where it came from. “Mom!”

  She waves from the sidewalk. She must have seen one of the signs. When Penny sees me and Dad, she pulls free of Mom’s hand and runs to join us.

  Her eyes are wide with wonder as she takes in all the different aliens, who she no doubt believes are people in costume. “Why are you all white, Archie?” she asks when she reaches us. I’m still getting used to her speaking in full sentences!

  “I’m a ghost.” I hold up my hands and wiggle my fingers. “Boo!”

  She pretends to jump in fright. Then she notices Pockets marching a few rows ahead of us and loses interest in me. “Pockets!” she shouts, and runs over to him.

  “Don’t take it personally,” Dad says with a grin. “I didn’t even get a hello!”

  “She sure loves that cat,” I say.

  “She does indeed.”

  “How are we going to explain Toe coming to stay with us?” I look around for him and see him a few yards behind us, chatting with one of the pink ladies.

  “I was thinking about that,” Dad says as we turn the corner from Main to Elm. “If Toe doesn’t speak, maybe we can pass him off as a large, fluffy stuffed animal?”

  I glance back again. I can hear Toe singing from here. “Pretty sure we can’t keep him quiet for very long.”

  “Yeah, probably not.”

  “He said the kids he taught at school thought he was just a hairy person. Maybe that’s what Penny will think.”

  “As long as she doesn’t see his feet!”

  Small groups are now starting to slip away from the parade and into apartment buildings along the route. I see Simon and Bubble Girl (as I’ve started to call her) break off next. He’s dressed as a farmer, in a straw hat and overalls. I watch in awe as she rolls down the street next to him, like a hamster in a wheel, except she’s not walking on all fours. She has a small duffel bag attached to the side of the bubble with magnets. I don’t see an opening in the bubble, but there must be one or else she wouldn’t be able to get anything out of her bag.

  They turn the corner onto a side street and disappear into one of the houses.